SID: I tell you, we’re on the
edge of our seats. Tell me about this letter you get from America two months
after you wrote a letter and didn’t even expect a reply.

NATASHA: Well, in fact, it was a
few months after I got my first package since that time. This Baptist mission
located in Sacramento, California, they’ve been so faithful. They would send a
monthly package with another issue of magazine, some brochures, and 10 copies
of the same issue of the newspaper.

SID: Did you keep putting them
under the doors?

NATASHA: Yes, I kept putting-

SID: She’s an evangelist and
doesn’t even know it!

NATASHA: I didn’t even know it.
What happened one day, I receive this letter and the return address said it’s
Sacramento, California, but the name of the person who mailed it was an
American name. As I remember, it was Patrick Panic. I never knew this person. I
opened the letter, start reading it. This man writes to me that he is a
Christian and he decided to visit this Russian church that is not far from his
home. When he came to this Russian church and as he stood at the book stand, he
meets this Russian man named Nikolai, who was an editor of the magazine to whom
I wrote a letter. He said as they start talking, Nikolai pulls out of the
pocket of his jacket my letter.

NATASHA: He tells this American
believer, “She is an atheist. She’s 29 years old. She doesn’t believe that
God exists. Please pray for her.” He handed him my letter. I mean, when I
read this, that touched my heart so much. An American Christian and this editor
didn’t throw away my letter. He carried it. He treasured it. It means my life
matters. It means there is an American who is not indifferent to me. Then the
last two sentences, they were, as we say in Russia, the last drop in my
overfilled cup.

NATASHA: It said, “I want you
to know I am praying for you” and “God loves you.” That was it.
Now I know that we put these sentences at the end of every letter without even
thinking, but these two sentences changed my life.

SID: What did you feel?

NATASHA: I felt like, I mean, there
was someone who I considered an enemy, he’s praying for me. He cares about me.
He wants the best for me. Then he says that God loves me. Now, by that time,
every night because I read all the literature and at the end of every issue of
the magazine and the newspaper, there was a Lord’s prayer. At a certain point,
I start thinking, “What if He exists? Just in case, I’m going to start
praying before I go to bed, just reading this Lord’s prayer. Just in case, you
know?”

SID: Insurance.

NATASHA: When I read God loves me,
it penetrated my heart. I was so excited and just ran to the phone to call my
friend, Alla.

SID: The one that says you’re
going to hell.

NATASHA: Yes, she gave up on me.
Anyway, I called her and I said, “Alla, you need to understand. I got a
letter from an American. Can you imagine? An American! He says that God loves
me and he’s praying for me. I need to show you this letter. I need to translate
to you this letter.” She was not really very excited. She gave up on me
for sure and she said, “Well, you know, I don’t really have time. Tomorrow
is a Sunday, I’m going to church. I don’t have time for you.” I said,
“Well, can I go to church with you just to show this letter?” Kind of
I’m inviting myself.

SID: I hope you’re getting
this. This woman’s so assured she was going to hell, she didn’t want to even
invite her to church.

NATASHA: She finally agreed and so
we met together the next day. I translated the whole letter while we were
riding a bus. We came to the church. It was an old Pentecostal church. They
survived persecution, etc., and so we were sitting in the balcony and during
the service, my eyes suddenly were opened and I suddenly realized that God is a
reality. He is real. He exists. You know, I was crying and I was whispering to
God. I said, “God, I’m sorry. I didn’t know you existed. If I had known
you existed, I would follow you. I’m so sorry. I just didn’t know about you,
anything. Could you forgive me for that?”

NATASHA: Then there was an altar
call. You know, I knelt, such was the tradition, you kneel, and all I could
say, everything was so spontaneous, but it was God. I was just crying and
repeating the same phrase, “Jesus, I didn’t know you existed. I’m so
sorry.” Then the minister of the church helped me and led me into the
prayer of repentance and accepting Jesus and when I stood up, I never thought
that I lived with such a burden. When I stood up, the burden, it seemed like
the burden of the sins of the whole world was lifted from me. I was filled with
peace and joy and lightness. I was transformed and I was absolutely a new
person.

NATASHA: The next thought was, you
know, I need to run home and tell my parents. They will be excited to hear
about that God exists and Jesus is real.

SID: As a new believer, she was
hired as a translator and heard a revelation that was different than any of
these new Christians had ever heard before, and she found out that she could
operate in miracles the same way that people on TV did. She never knew it. She
thought people had to have special anointings from God, but she got the most
amazing revelation that few Christians in America have. We’ll be right back.